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More Music for Less Money

If you like to listen to your favorite songs online, you've probably noticed all the music-streaming services competing for your attention. But with so many choices out there, do you stick with the free services or are the premium ones really worth the extra cost?

Let's look at your options, beginning with the free services. If you want to stream live radio, iHeartRadio will give you unlimited access to more than 1,500 different radio stations across the country. It also has the largest catalog of all the radio apps.

You'll be able to stream over 15 million songs, cost-free and ad-free. Keep in mind, this service works like an actual radio station, so while you can steer it in a musical direction, the program selects the songs you hear.

Now, let's talk about Spotify. This popular streamer offers more options than any other free service and is best for people who want total control over which songs, albums, and playlists they want to hear. However, the free version does have quite a few ads. If you don't want any interruptions, you can always upgrade to the premium version, but for a cost.

This brings us to our next category: paid music streaming. The three main benefits you'll get with paid services are unlimited downloads, no ads and offline listening. The good news is that the cost is usually the same across the board, about $10 per month.

Rhapsody has the largest selection of songs of them all, with over 32 million -- that's 10 million more than anyone else. Meanwhile, Google Play's "All Access" subscription will get you on-demand streaming of millions of songs, and you'll be able to add up to 20,000 of your own songs to play on any device.

So, when it comes to music streaming, paying extra will get you some perks, but depending on what you're into, it's not always necessary. Think about what your music needs are before you spend for songs.

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Victoria Dunn

I find this all very interesting, due to this article being on a "finance" site. Are people that ignorant about the music industry? I can tell from the article, that at least, the journalist is uninformed. These "free" services and even the paid services are stealing money from the songwriters, publisher, artist, and from there, it trickles down to anyone the artist has on their payroll. How would you feel to work your job for four months and get a check for 60.00? Can you feed your family with that? Buy gas? Pay all your utility bills? Forget about having health insurance. This is one example using the Spotify service. They pay the songwriter .00006182 cents per stream (the 60.00 is based on a million streams). We get paid quarterly and since we are self-employed, we have to take out taxes from that 60.00 and split it with our publisher. I'm pretty sure you, as the consumer, would not like to work your job for four months to only be paid 60.00. I'm pretty sure you, as the consumer, wouldn't walk into an art museum and steal a Van Gogh either. Contrary to popular belief, things in this world are not free -- unless, someone is willing to work very hard and give their craft away for free. Sometimes artist do give away music for promotional purposes, but that's the only reason why an artist would give away music for free. As hard working Americans, we do not believe in living off the system and we want to continue to create music for you to enjoy. Just know, these companies are pocketing your money, if you chose to pay for a service, and stealing straight from the creator. How is that fair? Wonder why music isn't all that great right now? It's because of these thieves. My husband has been a songwriter his entire life. He is making 80% less of what he made 10 years ago. Thanks to piracy and these streaming companies, who are also thieves. Just remember when you steal music, you are taking food away from a family. Not cool. These streaming companies should be ashamed of themselves. My hope is that I at least helped shed some real light on this topic. I hope responsible journalism returns some day too.

Turn on the radio if you want free music. Otherwise, pay for it so the artists can get make a living like everyone else. Other than a very few lucky individuals, there are many starving artists out there who need to be paid for their art.

I like e-music also. I have burned CD's and put the songs on my MP3 player. The music is mine to copy to any of my different players. No time limits. No restrictions on swapping from one player to another. Downloading is fast and easy.